Fitch speech team members heading to nationals

June 6, 2013

In two weeks, five members of the Fitch speech and debate team will be heading to Birmingham, Ala., to compete in a national speech competition. It will be a glorious ending to a long season of hard work.

"The speech team starts practicing at the end of September," said coach Andrea Folsom. "The regular season doesn't end until March."

She said after March, the teams enter post-season tournaments that end with the state championship. The team of junior Logan Pasqual and sophomore Jarrett Kerpsack went all the way and brought home the state championship in duo interpretation.

Article Photos

Photo by J.T. Whitehouse, Town CrierAt last week’s Austintown Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Vince Colaluca introduced four of the five Fitch speech team members who will be heading to a national competition in a few weeks. He is pictured with the duo interpretation team of Mia Colon and Maia Totterdale, team coach Andrea Folsom, and the duo interpretation team of Jarrett Kerpsack and Logan Pasqual.

Making it to the quarterfinal round at state was another duo in junior Mia Colon and freshman Maia Totterdale. They also competed in duo interpretation. Both duos great finish at the state level qualified them to compete in the national speech competition against other high school teams from across the 50 states. Also qualifying at state was Tyjair Sadler, a sophomore in the debate category.

The skits the Fitch students will perform at the national level will be the same one they used at the state competition. In fact, Folsom said the students put together their skit early in the season and have to stay with it all the way through the regular and post season. Teams that improve the most on their skit have the best chance at winning.

For state champs Pasqual and Kerpsack, the skit was a take off on the story of Cinderella. Pasqual acted as narrator for the story while Kerpsack handled the cast of characters. The skit is humorous and moves at a fast pace.

All five Fitch speech team members will be continuing rigorous practice sessions as they prepare to place their bid for a national championship later this month.